Top 10 most useful bash commands
21/04/2009When I first started using Linux a few years ago, I could not for the life of me understand why anyone would want to use the command line for anything as long as there was a graphical alternative. After all, I belong to the group of people who grew up with graphical interfaces. Sure I’ve enjoyed more than my share of DOS games and text-based MUDs, but that command line business was very scary to me up until just a few years ago.
Then I started using Linux. In the beginning I always used graphical applications for everything from managing files and directories to setting file permissions, but somehow, slowly but surely I started noticing that some things could be done so much easier and faster if done in the command line, compared to the graphical alternative - and then I still didn’t know about scripting! Once I figured out that you could automate tasks by writing bash scripts, I was in love.
Throughout this article I will list and explain what I think are the ten most useful bash commands. Whether you’re a bash guru or a command-line newbie, keep reading to see if there are any commands that could be useful to you.
